


Like Burning

by Code16



Series: load bearing [4]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: A/B/O, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Season Three, Bonding, F/F, F/M, Multi, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Verse, Omegaverse, Other, Triads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 03:20:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4650300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Code16/pseuds/Code16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Falling back on all their resources, Ra's al Ghul's plan of Arrow impostors has not been let to succeed. But Ra's al Ghul - who still holds Sara under his command, who wants Oliver like he wants few other things - is hardly finished.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not Over

“He’s not going to stop.”

Everyone is back in the foundry, the release of tension that comes from success and not dying radiating in every aura. The threat had come far too close. If it wasn’t for Lyla, Felicity doesn’t know if they would have found a way at all. 

It was the Beta who had pointed out that representatives of a hostile foreign power murdering people in the city could be validly classed as a terrorist act. Enough to bring in Waller. Enough that, with Ray’s technology to identify the impostors, not only, vitally, as not-Oliver but also as themselves, and Waller’s contacts with the media, the impostors could be publicly reported as such. Enough that they could not only be dealt with but that their route in could be identified and closed off. (The League had other routes, of course, they all knew that, but as Lyla and Diggle had both pointed out, ending an enemy operation was a success, and making an operation too expensive for an enemy to continue was an end).

So it was relief that pervaded the room, now, and Felicity wished more than most things that it could be left at that. But it couldn’t.

She’d put her aura in the pronouncement, almost without meaning to, and a part of her still recoiled at using it like that, but there was no time for that now. People were shifting their focus to her. She braced her hand back against the keyboard beside her, braced herself in her aura.

“Ra’s al Ghul. He wants Oliver.” (the Bond wound around his name. Wound around its other emptiness. _He has Sara._ But that could not be now either). “He still wants Oliver. This isn’t over.”

“This is ridiculous.” Lyla had spoken up, again. “We never expected this. We never expected him to kidnap Oliver last time. It’s bad enough that we’re dealing with a powerful organization with comparatively barely any resources. We don’t even know what to expect from them.”

This gets silence for a moment. It’s interrupted by Laurel.

“I know someone who might help.”


	2. Someone

“You’re in contact with _Nyssa_?” Oliver, predictably, did not take well to Laurel’s elaboration on her possible associate. Laurel, in turn, glared at him.

“Yes, I am. And if you’re about to say something about team members keeping secrets then I have news for you.”

“Laurel, she’s dangerous.”

“Since when have we dealt with anyone who isn’t? Are you forgetting that _you’ve_ worked with her?”

“She kidnapped your mother!”

“And do you think you’d have done better with relationships if _you’d_ been raised by Ra’s al Ghul? You spent one day with him and you were already thinking about saying yes to him.”

“That-“

“Can we not do this right now?” Felicity was wondering if she should try to intervene (-it felt so unstable sometimes, and she didn’t know what to do, couldn’t do enough, they needed _Sara-_ ), when Thea preempted her to it. “Nyssa kidnapped me too, but if she’s the one who can tell us how Ra’s might be kidnapping you next, then maybe we should try talking to her.”

“She’s right, Oliver.” Diggle and Lyla had their arms around each other, auras quietly winding together, and she was reminded that they still hadn’t been able to have their honeymoon. But the Beta's voice and aura held his usual composure. “Right now we need any ally we can get.”

“Fine.” Oliver’s aura, largely veiled as usual but amplified by the Bond, barely drew back from its set agitation, but the reminder of what was at stake had had its effect. “How do we meet her?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the show's scenes with Laurel and Nyssa but it kind of bothers me that the fact that Nyssa kidnapped Laurel's mother and drove her sister to suicide has just not been brought up at all. That's not what my story is about either, but I wanted to have it there at least.


	3. To See The Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From Nyssa, team Arrow learns what Ra's al Ghul plans for Oliver.

The meeting was tense. Even with Nyssa only on their screen, presumably looking through one of her own, postures and auras are like anticipating a battle. Felicity distracts herself in code, making sure (doubly sure, triply sure, quadruply sure) that absolutely nothing could overhear them. No one seemed certain who should speak first, but in the end it was Nyssa who broke the silence.

“Laurel tells me you have questions about my father.” Felicity pushes her chair back, turning.

“What happens to Oliver if he says yes?” It slips out of her, almost without intention. It wasn’t what they’d come here for, but that was the question against the border of the darkness, on the edge of every fear of what might happen next. The unknown pit of failure. What would happen to Oliver? What would happen to  _them_? Ra’s couldn’t kill her, couldn’t harm her, any more than he could Sara (-emptiness, emptiness, but he could _take her away_ -), lest the Bond’s recoil guarantee Oliver’s enmity, but what did that leave? Was ‘Bonded of the Heir to the Demon’ a position that existed? 

( _Maybe we should do it_ , the Bond whispered sometimes. _Oliver might listen, if you argued for it. We could be with Sara again._ She drew up what she’d seen of the League and tried to bury the whispers in it). For days she’d had systems running, searching for anything and everything that might be a hint of the League. Outside of legends that seemed half-stories, she’d found nothing. But Nyssa might have something. Should have.

This setup isn't equipped for auras, but when Nyssa looks at her Felicity remembers the feel of it, other Alpha aura pressing against her own, against the external face of the Bond. _You think you can protect her?_ Another whisper, but it has refused to stay buried. _She never tried to poison herself, over me._ That had seemed to matter so much more, before, when they were together, when the enemy was in the end to be coming through _her_ and not reaching for Oliver from and to shadows.

These shadows.

“He will be taken into the League and prepared to be the heir. A willing heir is trained and inducted into the ways of the League and their place in it. As he is unwilling, it will be longer. He must be broken and remade as the Demon’s Head wishes.” Nyssa surveys them, and through the Bond Felicity can read Oliver’s awareness of her balanced stance, of how her hands are still but could be at her weapons in an instant. Her certainty in it.

“The League has compounds and methods that will be used. Once they have gone far enough, my father will have him block his Bond to Taer Al-Sahfer and to you, so that it cannot distract him in the steps that follow. When my father’s control is secure enough to allow a mission, he will be sent after me.” 

“After you?” Oliver, of all of them, is the one to speak. She’s not sure what holds the others. Nyssa’s words ( _broken - methods - block his Bond)_ feel like they’re repeating themselves instead of dissipating as sound, a stranglehold on her aura that becomes stabbing pressure in her chest. She wants to reach for Oliver but he’s closed, drawn up like she’s seen him before threats.

“Yes. When there is a rival for the heir, one must overcome the other, and their division joined in marriage and a Bond. It is a tradition of the League’s unity.” Even Oliver can’t contain his shock at that. From behind him, Roy stares out at Nyssa.

“You mean your father-“ he cuts himself off, but Nyssa is answering already.

“My father’s rival had resented that an Omega like my father would ever be seen as equal challenger to an Alpha. He could not stand being bested by him. He left the League, taking by theft what he felt was his due, and his followers left with him.” She surveys them again, the reactions they have to be betraying, even physically.

“You worry I will act as he did. Don’t. My father knows I would be the victor in combat. He will not allow us a fair fight. He will not leave anything to chance." That might be several parsecs from reassuring. Nyssa continues with barely a pause.

“When that is finished, there is the final act of ascension. To become the Demon’s Head an Heir must erase their former life. Before I departed, I stole an item from my father. It is a virus, known as the Alpha and Omega. He will never find it, but I have since learned that he had another.”

Oliver looks like someone just stabbed him, clamps down on his aura so hard and abruptly that she knows he’s trying to hide something. It’s not quite enough. Echoes pass through the Bond - streets in disarray, fire, corpses. 

“No, he can’t. That’s not possible.” Like he’s trying to force certainty into his voice and failing. 

“It was brought to my father by one who wished to join the League, some years ago. For his gift, my father has given Sarab a place of honor. I believe it is with it that my father will sent his chosen Heir to destroy this city.” The whole room seems to have frozen still. Nyssa finishes her words into complete silence.

“With his training, the new Bond, and the cleansing, my father’s hold will be absolute. Oliver Queen will be no more. He will order him to sever his old Bonds and remake him anew as we wishes.” She looks briefly to the side, as though to something else in her room. “I must go. Laurel knows how to contact me should you wish to ask further.” The connection cuts off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While it was not stated as such in the show, it seems Ra's did have two vials of the virus, since we saw Oliver use one on team Arrow before the mission to Starling. Also, I have higher appraisal of Nyssa's abilities than it seems the show does. Also also, I am taking this opportunity to deploy [my AU headcanon](http://connectingsparkingwebs.tumblr.com/post/117751791228/arrow-liveblogging-321) about Ra's and Damien Darhk.


End file.
